Nintendo offers European consumers a choice for DS cases: paper or plastic

A plastic shortage means Nintendo has made a temporary switch to cardboard …

We know that the DS is selling a ton of games around the world, but I never knew it could get to the point where Nintendo is suffering from a plastic shortage in certain parts of Europe. That's pretty intense. For now, games in the affected areas (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg) will be shaped with cardboard cases and include a coupon good for a replacement plastic case when supplies cease to be an issue. A lot of people are saying they should just stick to the cardboard cases; I'm going to have to vehemently disagree.

Of course, this is all based on the idea that someone is going to care about cases years from now. Do you know how hard it is to find a SNES or NES game in a box? It's damn near impossible, no one kept the things. They got thrown out when the game was bought, or soon after. Tracking down packaging for any system with cardboard cases isn't easy. I like my DS cases. I have about 20 or so DS games, and the plastic cases mean I can store them without worrying about the cases breaking down, water won't affect anything if it gets spilled on the case, and I can stack them up without the boxes crunching under their own weight.

While I don't think the DS games are fragile, I do enjoy the extra protection a plastic case gives you, as well as how long they last. Since I'm something of a hoarder when it comes to games, cardboard cases just turn me off.